{"id":106512,"date":"2025-08-29T00:29:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=106512"},"modified":"2025-08-29T00:29:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:29:16","slug":"red-sox-calling-up-payton-tolle-friday-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/29\/red-sox-calling-up-payton-tolle-friday-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Red Sox to Call Up Top Pitching Prospect for Friday Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Red Sox are promoting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=tolle-000pay&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Payton Tolle<\/a>, their top pitching prospect, to debut Friday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates, according to multiple reports, including Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The left-hander will start opposite second-year phenom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/skenepa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Skenes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_104352\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-104352\" style=\"width: 517px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-104352\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_23066410-300x189.jpg\" alt=\"The Red Sox are calling up TCU product and their top pitching prospect, Payton Tolle, to debut Friday against Paul Skenes and the Pirates.\" width=\"517\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_23066410-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_23066410-1024x644.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_23066410-768x483.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_23066410-1536x966.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_23066410-2048x1288.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 517px) 100vw, 517px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-104352\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">TCU Horned Frogs utility Payton Tolle (49) pitches in the second inning of the Texas Longhorns game against the TCU Horned Frogs at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Friday, April 19, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Report: Red Sox Calling Up Payton Tolle for Friday Debut<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Red Sox top pitching prospect Payton Tolle expected to make his MLB debut tomorrow night at Fenway Park against the Pirates\u2019 Paul Skenes, sources tell <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a>. Tolle, a left-hander, was the team\u2019s second-round pick out of TCU last year. Meteoric rise in first pro season.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ken_Rosenthal\/status\/1961197787216830813?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old Tolle was Boston&#8217;s second-round pick in 2024 out of Texas Christian University. He ranks as Boston&#8217;s No. 2 overall prospect (behind shortstop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=arias-008fra&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-29_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Franklin Arias<\/a>) and No. 28 overall according to MLB Pipeline. He has rocketed through the team&#8217;s minor league system this season, moving from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A in quick succession. However, Tolle was most successful with Double-A Portland, pitching to a 1.67 ERA and a 0.741 WHIP in six games (five starts). Overall, he has a record of 3-5 with a 3.04 ERA, a 0.993 WHIP, 133 strikeouts, and only 23 walks in 91 2\/3 innings this season.<\/p>\n<p>Tolle has an intimidating frame, standing at 6&#8217;6&#8243; and 250 pounds. A two-way player in college, the Red Sox were tempted by his ability to pound the strike zone and are hoping he&#8217;ll be a successful full-time pitcher. Per <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/top100\/payton-tolle-801139\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MLB Pipeline<\/a>, Tolle has a three-pitch mix, consisting of a fastball, slider, and changeup.<\/p>\n<p>A native of Stillwater, Oklahoma, Tolle is not the only high-profile pitching prospect making his MLB debut on Friday. The New York Mets are also promoting Jonah Tong to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/27\/mets-prospect-jonah-tong-mlb-debut-friday\/\" target=\"_self\">start their game<\/a> against the Miami Marlins. As September roster expansion nears, several members of the MLB Pipeline Top 100 could see action. This applies to contenders looking to continue their playoff push, like the Red Sox and Mets. But non-contenders will also be giving youngsters a chance to see what they have to offer for the future.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 WooSox Photo\/Ashley Green \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Red Sox are promoting Payton Tolle, their top pitching prospect, to debut Friday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates, according to multiple reports, including Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The left-hander will start opposite second-year phenom Paul Skenes. Report: Red Sox Calling Up Payton Tolle for Friday Debut Red Sox top pitching prospect Payton [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3931,"featured_media":106516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,926,1071,35],"tags":[28775,6371,28646],"class_list":["post-106512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redsox","category-milb","category-mlb","category-news","tag-franklin-arias","tag-paul-skenes","tag-payton-tolle"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3931"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106512"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106517,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106512\/revisions\/106517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}